Oil prices head for weekly loss while dollar struggles after BoE and ECB moves

News for today, Friday 17 December.

As fears about the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, inflation doubts and the world’s central banks game changes undermined investors confidence, the Asian stocks suffered its 13-months lows. Chinese blue chips shed 0,7% while Japan’s Nikkei shed 1,8%.

The number of new Omicron cases in Europe and South Africa are doubling every two days, which raises fears and affects the oil prices. Brent is headed for a 1% loss this week, while WTI is poised to finish the week nearly flat.

The dollar index slipped 0.06% having hit a more than one-week low. The yen, which tends to rally in times of market stress, rose as high as 0.23% to 113.445 per dollar as Omicron worries simmered.

The price of Brent crude is $ 74.25 per barrel, WTI — $ 71.47. EUR/USD is at 1.1331, GBP/USD — 1.3322, gold is at $ 1,808.55 per ounce.­­­­